A drink too much
by Animationfan89
Summary: What would have happened if they had all stayed at the lodge and started the party before Josh could even begin with his master plan? Too much alcohol leads to Josh revieling his intensions with the trip to his friends (An AU where the group does not split up, but party at the lodge instead)
1. Chapter 1

"Emily! Stop! This is out of hand. There's no reason to fight like this." Matt once again tries to get the situation under control, and the tension in the room is building up. Jessica however, does not seem to get the hint, and uses the new comment for her advantage.

"Yeah, Em! Why you pickin' fights over your ex boyfriend? Huh?" she says tauntingly, and the look on Emily's face is nothing else than disgust. If it's for Jessica or Matt, the others can only guess. She opens her mouth to come with an answer, but at the same time, Josh stands up.

"STOP IT!" he says loudly and the two girls shut up at once. He looks at them, and then continues with a serious look. "This is not why we came up here. This is not… helping. It's not what I wanted. If we can't get along for ten minutes then maybe we need a little bit of a break, right?"

Josh keeps his serious tone, but his blood is pumping in his veins, because this is exactly what he wanted. He can send the first pair away with this opportunity, and soon his plan can start. He can almost feel the smile trying to break through and take a hold of his face, but he keeps the acting going. Soon his revenge can start, and oh boy, it will be big. The feeling of finally getting closure of the wound in his heart. No feeling of helplessness or unfinished business anymore. The sleepless nights will be over. Finally some peace in his raging mind.

"Mike- why don't you check out the guest cabin? The one I told you about." And now he will just need to send Emily and Matt away. He has some different ideas, of how-

"No, man, it's cool," Mike says, and Josh almost forget to keep his face. "You're right. This is not helping. It's stupid. But we can get along. Right, Jess?"

Jess looks at him, with a huffed look, but then sighs and nods with a fake smile. "Yeah, sure."

Matt sends Emily a look too, and she just nods, while making her way to her bags, that's at the entrance to the living room.

Josh does not know what to say. If they do not want to leave, he will have to wait for an unknown amount of time to start the big show. He will just have to play some tricks, to get Emily and Jessica in a fight again later. Yeah. Yeah, he can do that. For sure. It will be easy.

"Okay, cool," he manages to say with a bit of thankfulness in his voice and faces the fireplace yet again.

Chris, Ashley and Sam stands near the stairs, not involved in the now finished conflict. Sam and Ashley both look relived, that the fight is over, but Chris feels a little bit tensed. He knows, and has known since he got the invitation, that they must have a good time at the mountain. Not to get the fun and free atmosphere that the group once shared back, but for the sake of Josh. His conversation with Sam on the cable car still replays in his head. She's worried, and even though he tries to push it away, he is too. Josh lost his sisters, for god's sake. The trip is their only chance to get the happy Josh back. Or at least help him with some of the grief. Therefore, he offers the only thing he can think of.

"Anyone who wants to help with the lights so we can get the party started?" The attention goes to him, and he smiles and adds with a bit of sarcasm; "Or we could all just cheer for Josh, while he gets the fire going?"

"I'll go with you, man." Mike says.

"Um, you'll have to- It's in the basement," Josh says. "I- should I go with you?"

"Yeah, that would be a good idea," Chris says. "You know the place better than us."

Matt sits down in front of the fireplace, instead of Josh, and the three boys makes their way to the stairs. Mike and Chris is up for small talking, but Josh keeps quiet. He reflects on his possibilities, and happily realizes that alcohol might be a good idea. If he can get Mike and Jessica to drink enough, he might make them leave, and the same goes for Matt and Emily if he plays his carts right. Then it will all fit. He smiles and starts engaging calmly in the conversation, knowing things are going to turn out just the way he wants them.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam glances around at the people in the room, and feel the awkward effect of a long time without seeing each other kick in. It had been a rough year, with all eight of them not communicating enough with each other, and now they are here. Back in the lodge. The place that holds the terrifying realization that Hannah and Beth really are gone, and will not come back, no matter how much they regret what they did and did not do. It would be easy to be sad over it, and even easier to start discussing who should feel the most guilt about it, but they have to get over it somehow. For the sake of everyone and especially for Josh. Sam can feel the empathy just by thinking of how he must be feeling, and the bath she had been planning for the whole trip up here, must wait. She has to do something.

"Hey, guys," she says with a smile and stands up. "Let's go put the alcohol and the food in the kitchen."

"Yeah, good idea," Ashley says, gratified that someone finally says something.

"Okay, I guess so," Emily says and grabs one of the bags.

"You go ahead. I'll just keep this fight with the fire going," Matt says with a humorous smile.

Sam is the only one to return the smile, and the girls make it to the kitchen without saying a word to each other. Sam sighs knowing it will take some time to get the conversation starting.

Josh has always been good at the technical aspects of things. Like, if Mike and Chris walked some small steps down the corridor and started going through the rest of the basement they would discover a world of horror just waiting to come to life before their eyes. But luckily they stay close, and for now Josh's technical talents must be used to fix something as simple as the lights. A little bit to the downside though. It would be much scarier to walk around in the dark, but maybe he can make the lights disappear again, later when he has the time. And the privacy.

There is a silent moment between the three boys, until Mike speaks up.

"So, do you need any help?" He looks a little bit uncomfortable standing and watching someone doing the job. Or maybe it is just the whole situation that makes it all seem a little bit weird and pointless.

"No, I got it," Josh answers and push a few buttons. "-and now we should have light."

"Great," Chris says. "Let's get this weekend started."

"Yeah, in the way every weekend should start. With vodka and girls," Mike says, and walks towards the stairs while dancing a little bit. Chris shakes his head, and waits up for Josh to follow them.

"So I have thought about what you said," Chris says, when Mike is long enough away for only Josh to hear.

Josh looks confused. "Um, okay?"

"You know, about Ashley," Chris explains. "And I think you're right. I mean, we have been having a thing going on for a long time now, and we like spending time with each other. So why not take it to the next level. Like you said, I've made all the ground work, so we're probably still gonna be friends if it does not work out. And now we're gonna party and everything, so it's the perfect opportunity."

Josh lights up in a smirky smile, and claps Chris lightly on the back. "There you go! That's the right attitude. You should listen to me more often, you know."

Chris laughs and for a moment, Josh forgets about the gruesome part of the plan, and focuses on how close Ashley and Chris will be after it's over. The traumatic event that will send them directly into each other's arms, and make Josh the perfect wingman. Finally, Chris will get the girl, and he will have no other than Josh to thank for it. He laughs a little bit by himself and Chris smiles with no clue at all, about what's causing Josh's mood to be so light all of sudden.

As they enter the room upstairs, the fire is already waving around in the fireplace, and it feels warmer just by seeing it. They find the others in the kitchen, were they all each have a drink in their hand. Mike turns the light on as he enters the room.

"Let there be light," he says and greets Jessica, by laying an arm around her.

"Nice work, boys," Jessica says, but only has hey eyes fixed on Mike.

"Yeah, now we can finally see each other again. You know, for real," Ashley says, and looks at Chris with a big smile for a moment, before returning her attention to Sam and their conversation. But the quick moment is enough to make Chris sure about his decision. This weekend will change everything to the better. He sits down in a bar chair and is quickly drawn into Sam and Ashley's lightly conversation. Josh now stands alone in the doorway.

He looks at his friends for a moment. No one is fighting anymore, nor is there any bad tension in the air, and it almost makes him feel annoyed. No, angry. His sisters used to be a part of this. They used to stand in this room with them and laugh and smile and make jokes with them. Hannah would laugh with Sam about something irrelevant and send Mike looks, when he weren't aware of it, and Beth would be there too, either with her sister or Jessica, and she would be the caring helper if anyone got to drunk, like she always was. And he would laugh with them, and when he and Chris got to drunk, like they always did, his sisters would mock him lightly the morning after, and he would hear about it for a long time, but he didn't care. They were be a part of everything. Every social event, it would be Josh, Hannah and Beth and their friends. The memories, the jokes. It was everything. But those days were over, because of the people Josh was looking at in the exact moment. Hannah and Beth would never come back, and his friends are just laughing and having a good time without them. Just as he is about to silently, walk out of the room, Chris looks at him.

"Hey, Josh. Let's grab a beer."

No. No, I do not want anything from you. "Um, I don't know, man. I don't really feel like it."

"Come on, dude," Chris grabs two beers from the fridge. "This is a party. And we both know we're the kings of parties."

Josh hesitates, but realizes that he need to party with them, if he wants to get anyone drunk. They are worried. It's easy to see.

"Well, okay then, cochise." Josh gives in and Chris smiles triumphantly, making his way through the kitchen to stand beside his best friend.

Maybe it isn't that bad. As long as he can keep it under control, it will all soon go after the plan. As Emily and Matt goes to the fridge to grab something else to drink, he smirks, and feels a little bit comforted. Partying for an hour or two, and so it can all begin. He does not need to hurry. They are going to be at the lodge for the whole weekend. So when Chris passes him the beer he gladly accepts it and joins the group. One beer won't make any difference.


End file.
